How we priced this
Our pricing page shows a market rate next to each thing we build and run, and a "hired separately" total on every tier. This page explains where those numbers come from, so you can check them instead of taking our word.
The rule we used
Every figure is the typical price to hire that capability separately, as a person or a managed service. Most sit at the low end of the range we could verify in published 2026 rates; where one sits higher, the basis column says what it is anchored to. Where a line could be read as either software or labor, we priced the labor, because that is what the system actually replaces: a receptionist who answers at 2 AM, a setter who qualifies and books, an agency that builds and runs campaigns. Software subscriptions that do a fraction of a line run cheaper, and if a $200-a-month tool is what your business needs, we will tell you so on the pricing page itself.
Three figures came down and three went up after a verification pass of roughly fifty separate rate checks. We kept the lowered ones low and the raised ones at the documented floor. The totals are conservative on purpose: a value total you can poke holes in is worth less than a smaller one that survives checking.
The numbers, line by line
| What we show | Rate on the page | Verified 2026 range | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI answers every lead in seconds, text + voice, 24/7 | ~$1,500/mo | $800–$1,500+ | 24/7 live answering with appointment scheduling, published plan pricing (industry guides from Nextiva, Housecall Pro, and comparable 2026 cost surveys) |
| Missed-call text-back | ~$200/mo | $99–$300 | standalone missed-call text-back tools, published plans |
| Lead qualification + booking | ~$2,000/mo | $2,000–$10,000 | outsourced appointment-setting retainers and managed virtual assistants; our figure is the documented floor |
| Every lead source in one place | ~$500/mo | $300–$1,000 | ongoing CRM and inbox administration for a service business |
| Your data organized | ~$1,000/mo | $800–$2,000 | dedicated data and operations help, published VA and managed-service rates |
| Dedicated number, registered and carrier-verified | ~$100/mo | $99–$150 | done-for-you carrier registration and compliance services, published plans |
| AI email responder | ~$500/mo | $300–$4,000 | email-handling virtual assistant share; cheapest structured plans run near $900 |
| Advanced follow-up automation | ~$2,500/mo | $2,500–$10,000 | email and automation agency retainers; our figure is the documented floor |
| Multi-location lead routing | ~$1,500/mo | $1,480–$2,060 | half of a dispatcher's published salary range, before benefits |
| Review and reputation management | ~$500–$1,000/mo | $500–$5,000 | two scopes: review-request service (~$500, the Scale plan line; managed services run $500–$2,500, median near $830) and full reputation management across platforms (~$1,000, the Market Leader line; full-service agencies run $1,000–$5,000). Software-only tools run $19–$99 and are not what either line describes |
| Advanced analytics and reporting | ~$2,000/mo | $2,000–$5,000 | small-business analytics retainers; our figure is the floor |
| Extra simultaneous capacity | ~$1,200/mo | $800–$2,400 | a second virtual receptionist, published plan pricing |
| Market + competitor research | ~$3,000 build | $2,000–$15,000 | professional agency market audits, one-time |
| Paid ads built and managed | ~$3,000+/mo | $1,500–$5,000 | local-business paid-media management fees for one channel, excluding ad spend. The second channel on Market Leader and Atlas is shown as ~$4,000 more, which keeps the two-channel total near $7,000, inside the published $6,000–$15,000 multi-channel band |
| Landing page | ~$3,000 build | $2,000–$5,000 | custom conversion-focused page with strategy and copy |
| CRM pipeline + reporting setup | ~$7,000 build | $3,500–$20,000 | CRM implementation plus conversion-tracking setup, published project rates (shown on the Growth Engine card as ~$5,000 CRM + ~$2,000 reporting) |
| Nurture, text + email | ~$2,500/mo | $2,500–$10,000 | email marketing agency retainers, documented floor |
| SEO + AI-answer engine | ~$4,500/mo | $2,000–$15,000 | combined SEO plus AI-answer-optimization retainers, mid-low of the published band |
| Video creative | ~$4,000/mo | $2,000–$10,000 | video production retainers for a local brand |
| Full content engine | ~$8,000/mo | $5,000–$15,000 | full-service content programs, survey of published rates |
| Multi-metro, per market | ~$6,000/mo | $2,500–$6,000 | per-location marketing management for franchise and home-services operators |
| Advanced attribution | ~$10,000/mo | $5,000–$20,000 | dedicated attribution and analytics engineering engagements, typical published retainer |
| Weekly strategy calls | ~$8,000/mo | $5,000–$20,000 | a part-time head of marketing (fractional CMO), entry of the experienced retainer band |
| Dedicated account management | ~$1,000/mo | $500–$1,000 | the account-management share of published agency retainers |
The big one: the AI pipeline line
The largest figure on the page is ~$18,000 a month for a custom AI pipeline and the data engineering to run it. That is the one line we can anchor to live marketplace data rather than pricing guides: published fractional lead AI engineer rates average $170 an hour, with a published starting retainer of $13,600 a month and a typical engagement near $23,100 a month. We show $18,000, between the floor and the typical figure, for a role that builds and runs the system end to end. If you want to check it, the published rate data for fractional lead AI engineers is a short search away, and we will happily walk you through it on a call.
What this means for the price you pay
The gap between the hired-separately totals and our flat rates is not a discount trick. It exists because AI collapses the labor cost of the work: one engineered system does the answering, the qualifying, the booking, the follow-up, and the reporting that would otherwise be five hires or five vendors. We pass most of that collapse through and keep the rest. That is the business model, stated plainly.
Rates verified 2026-07-02 against published 2026 pricing. We re-verify when we change the numbers.